This invention relates to cantilever support brackets which are adapted to be directly mounted to a slotted standard on a wall member, and more particularly to a positive lock mechanism for locking the cantilever support bracket to the wall panel.
It is a common practice today to mount office furniture such as desk tops, wall cabinets, book shelves filing cabinets and the like directly to the walls whether the walls be of permanent construction or of the free standing type. In many instances this is accomplished by employing a slotted standard on the wall or wall panel which cooperates with and receives a plurality of hook shaped connector elements mounted on the rearward side of the furniture mounting bracket. Heavy cantilever loads such as desk tops, shelving or filing cabinets, if jarred, may become disconnected from the slotted standard on the wall. Where the interconnection between the connectors and the slotted standard can be disassociated unintentionally at least property damage and possibly bodily injury may result. A positive locking mechanism which locks the hook connectors into the slotted standard is the only solution to this problem. A similar problem can exist when free standing wall panels are supported by lateral supports of the type illustrated in copending application Ser. No. 264,098 filed June 19, 1972 for wall panel lateral support assembly and locking mechanism therefor now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,281 and owned by the assignee of this invention. Here again, without the use of a locking mechanism to lock the hook shaped or T-shaped hook connectors into the slotted standard, the lateral support and free standing wall panel can be accidentally disassociated causing an undesirable accident.
Several kinds of locking mechanism have been employed to retain hook connectors into a slotted standard with the purpose of avoiding inadvertent disassociation of the hook connectors with the slotted standard. Although the locking mechanism disclosed in the above-identified copending application is quite effective in locking the hook connector into the slotted standard, the mechanism includes a large number of parts and is therefore more expensive to manufacture and the latch mechanism thereof can be inadvertently flipped to the unlocked position because of the non-positive set. Other locking mechanisms have also been disclosed such as that illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,601,432 where a detent is pivotally moved into the slotted standard, but again, the non-positive latching provides for the easy inadvertent removal of the lock mechanism from the slot. A similar locking mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,684 to R. G. Chesley. The Chesley locking mechanism is again pivotal in operation and although positively locked by means of a nut and bolt, intentional disassociation of the cantilever bracket from the slotted standard requires the use of tools which may not always be available when disassociation is desired.
The optimum in a locking mechanism for a cantilever support bracket should include positive retention of the lock mechanism when a locked configuration is desired as well as ease of unlatching, without the use of tools, when and only when such unlocking is desired.